Editorial: Pledge could take constituents over the fiscal cliff

December 2, 2012

When the current Congress took office two years ago, 95% of all Republicans in the U.S. House and Senate had signed Grover Norquist's pledge agreeing never to support a tax increase. / JIM WATSON/AFP/Getty Images

Nine Republican members of Michigan's 14-member congressional delegation next term have signed Grover Norquist's pledge. / JIM WATSON/AFP/Getty Images

Since 1985, a conservative ideologue named Grover Norquist has stalked lawmakers and other elected officials in Washington, D.C., and the 50 states, seeking their signatures on a document, known simply as "the pledge," whose signatories vow never to support a tax increase of any kind.

Although it is not legally binding, the pledge has been a powerful tool for politicians seeking to curry favor with Norquist's Americans for Tax Reform, whose long-term objectives include dramatically shrinking the size of federal government and abolishing the graduated federal income tax with a flat consumption tax.

By the time the current Congress was gaveled to order two years ago, 238 of 242 House Republicans -- including all nine in Michigan's 14-member congressional delegation for next term -- and 41 of 47 Republicans in the Senate had signed the pledge. Norquist boasts that not one of the signatories has voted for a tax increase in the 22 years since the pledge's debut.

But it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that strict adherence to the pledge will make it virtually impossible for President Barack Obama and House Speaker John Boehner to strike a compromise that trades significant cuts in federal spending for increases in marginal tax rate for the wealthiest Americans. And unless a deal is reached by Dec. 31, a wide range of tax cuts authorized since 2000 will expire on Dec. 31, raising taxes for

9 of 10 Americans.

As Sen. Lindsay Graham, R-S.C., said recently, "When you're $16 trillion in debt, the only pledge we should be making to each other is to avoid becoming Greece." (Graham signed Norquist's pledge, but he says he'd consider boosting federal tax revenues by limiting some deductions.)

Graham's pragmatism is a breath of fresh air in a party where most lawmakers have favored ideological purity over practical problem solving. Michigan Republicans must follow his lead if their constituents hope to avoid the high price of continued congressional gridlock.

GOP's tired pledge imperils deficit deal

For two decades, most Republicans aspiring to take the congressional oath of office have been required to submit first to a different oath: conservative lobbyist Grover Norquist's Taxpayer Protection Pledge.

Signing the pledge means promising never to vote for a tax hike, even by eliminating or reducing deductions. By the time the current Congress took office two years ago, 95% of all Republicans in the House and Senate had sworn fealty to Norquist's vision of ideological purity.

Two summers ago, when President Barack Obama and House Speaker John Boehner seemed on the verge of a compromise that paired modest revenue increases and substantial cuts in federal spending, fear of what Norquist's well-financed Americans for Tax Reform might do to Republicans who reneged on the pledge helped scuttle a deal.

Instead of addressing the unsustainable gap between tax revenues and spending, the negotiators bought time by planting a bomb deep in the lame-duck session now under way in Washington. Failure to reach a bipartisan deficit-cutting agreement by Dec. 31 will trigger draconian spending cuts across the government and an end to the wide-ranging tax cuts authorized in President George W. Bush's first term. About 90% of Americans would face higher tax bills immediately, with lower-income households bearing the brunt of the increase.

The prospect of plunging over the fiscal cliff has brought some of Washington's more responsible Republicans to their senses about the folly of holding fast to Norquist's pledge.

At least five prominent GOP lawmakers, including South Carolina Sen. Lindsay Graham, Georgia Sen. Saxby Chambliss and Arizona Sen. John McCain, say they're now open to revenue-raising options that might violate what McCain dismisses as "this, quote, pledge."

But all nine Republican members of Michigan's 14-member congressional delegation next term have signed the Norquist pledge, and so far, none has committed to any budget compromise that would raise federal tax revenues, even if the deal included substantial reductions in federal spending.

It is an ideological absolutism that hearkens back to the Republican presidential debate in August 2011 when all eight candidates vying for the GOP nomination swore they would reject any budget deal that raised taxes, even if every dollar of tax increases was matched by $10 in spending cuts.

One of those candidates was Mitt Romney, who lost last month's presidential showdown to a Democratic incumbent who campaigned on a promise to balance spending cuts with higher marginal tax rates for the wealthiest Americans. It's hard to figure how President Barack Obama's re-election can be construed as anything but a rejection of Norquist's uncompromising position that any deficit reduction must be achieved through spending cuts alone.

But here's Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Brighton, echoing Norquist's mantra in a statement provided this week to the Free Press:

And here's Kerry Bentivolio, the congressman-elect from Milford who will take office Jan. 3 in former Rep. Thaddeus McCotter's district:

"I signed the pledge, and I intend to honor that," Bentivolio said in a phone conversation late Friday. Asked whether he would vote for a deal that matched every dollar in tax increases with $10 in spending cuts, Bentivolio hedged only a little.

"I'd do a check with Grover. I'd ask his opinion before I did anything else, because I like the way he thinks."

Among the nine Michigan Republicans who have signed the pledge, only Rep. Candice Miller, R-Harrison Twp., left herself much maneuvering room when the Free Press asked whether she would entertain a bipartisan deal that included increased tax revenue as well as spending cuts.

"No reasonable person wants us to go off the fiscal cliff," Miller said in a statement e-mailed to the Free Press. "I trust Speaker Boehner to negotiate the best deal that the two sides can come to agreement on."

It should be apparent by now that neither party -- much less the one that lost the presidential election -- is in a position to declare either side of the budget ledger off-limits.

Republicans would howl with derision if Democrats took a public oath never to reduce spending on any federal program utilized by their constituents; vowing never to raise taxes under any circumstances is equally ridiculous.

Defaulting to an across-the-board tax increase just to avoid complicity in any plan that increases the tax burden on the wealthy would be even more contemptible; that would only confirm suspicions that some Republicans are less interested in actually reducing taxes than in maintaining their own ideological purity.

Much has changed since Norquist commandeered the GOP with his tyrannical oath. For one thing, the vast majority of Americans are paying substantially less taxes than people with the same inflation-adjusted income paid in 1980.

In any case, achieving the deficit reduction both parties leaders insist are critical to America's long-term prosperity will prove impossible unless both spending and revenue adjustments are on the table.

Steven Spielberg's "Lincoln" reminds viewer that governance is the art of balancing principle and pragmatism. Lincoln and his fellow Republicans did not achieve the abolition of slavery by enslaving themselves to pledges and litmus tests.

Lincoln also knew the only inviolable pledge was the one he made the day he was inaugurated -- to faithfully execute his office.

Federal lawmakers who imagine they can fulfill their own duty merely by toeing Grover Norquist's arbitrary line are deceiving themselves -- and disserving their constituents.

More Details: About Grover Norquist

Grover Norquist, 56, is a longtime Republican activist who has achieved superstar status in conservative circles as the creator and chief enforcer of the Taxpayer Protection Pledge, whose signatories take an oath never to vote for a tax increase. He has said he conceived the pledge as a 12-year-old volunteer in Richard Nixon’s 1968 presidential campaign, and that he founded Americans for Tax Reform, which recruits and promotes public officials who sign it, at the suggestion of President Ronald Reagan in 1985.

A native of Weston, Mass., Norquist is the son of a former vice president of Polaroid. He holds a bachelor’s degree and an MBA from Harvard University, and served as executive director of the national College Republicans and chief speechwriter for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce before launching Americans for Tax Reform.

Besides promoting the pledge, Norquist’s organization strives to limit the size and scope of government. Norquist famously expressed his ambition to “shrink (government) down to the size where we can drown it in the bathtub.” ATR also advocates tax reform “that moves towards taxing consumed income one time at one rate,” regardless of its size or origin.

ATR’s nonprofit status allows the organization to conceal its funding sources, and Norquist has repeatedly refused to identify its major donors, although CBS News has reported that a disproportionate percentage of ATR’s financial support “appears to come from wealthy individuals, foundations and corporations.”

Norquist is married to Samah Alrayyes, a Palestinian Muslim and public relations executive who has worked at the Islamic Free Market Institute and the U.S. Agency for International Development. They have two children, both adopted from abroad.

The Pledge

The Americans for Tax Reform’s Taxpayer Protection Pledge is short and sweet:

I, [insert name here], pledge to the taxpayers of the [number] district of the state of [insert state name] and to the American people that I will:

One, oppose any and all efforts to increase the marginal income tax rates for individuals and/or businesses; and

Two, to oppose any net reduction or elimination of deductions and credits, unless matched dollar for dollar by further reducing tax rates

The lawmaker signs, and that’s it: a public, signed oath that tax increases aren’t an option, no matter how dire the circumstances.

The brainchild of right-wing conservative Grover Norquist, the pledge has been around since 1986, according to Americans for Tax Reform’s website, when President Ronald Reagan gave it his stamp of approval.

Forty-one U.S. senators and 238 U.S. representatives have signed the pledge, including Michigan’s nine GOP representatives.

It’s worth noting that the pledge refers specifically to the marginal income tax rate. That’s the rate levied on the last dollar earned. All Americans pay the same base rate on income below a certain threshold. As income increases, so does the tax rate — but only on the income over that threshold. For example, a single person would pay a rate of 10% on income up to $8,700. But income between $8,701 and $35,350 is taxed at 15%. Income between $35,351 and $85,650 is taxed at 25%. And so on.

Republican lawmakers and activists have opposed attempts to allow the tax cuts made by President George W. Bush for Americans making more than $250,000 a year to expire. Allowing those cuts to end would mean that those taxpayers would pay a marginal rate of 39.6%, rather than 35%, but only on income exceeding $250,000.